Tao Bistro

For lucn, I ordered the sesame chicken dish through Peach. It was a nice balanced meal with the chicken, white rice, two pot stickers, and some green beans.
The sesame chicken was perfect, cooked nice and slightly sweet. The pot stickers were really good also, I would have liked a few more.
This was one of the better Peach meals, it makes me want to visit restaurant.

Pretty authentic stuff for being in the sleepy town of Issaquah. Definitely a hidden gem, and really enjoyed the food! Atmosphere is a little on the bleak side, but I can definitely get by that for the quality of food.

We just moved to Issaquah from Bellevue and I was looking for a Facing East equivalent.
This place isn’t quite that but it’s definitely decent for what it is — I’ve never eaten here, only ordered takeout but it’s always good quantities and quality.
In general I like the pork belly over rice, the pork intestines, vegetables, etc. The congee could use a little more seasoning but otherwise also a good amount is given.
Love that there’s this option in Issaquah!

Great place in Issaquah. close to home, decent choices, and pretty good flavors.
i wouldn’t say the best of anything (food/​service/​quality/​etc) but overall everything is pretty good. Prices are reasonable, and it’s a good place to ‘grab a take out box’ and eat lunch.

The food is bland and tasteless. I should’ve listened to the recent Unilocal reviews on this place. What are all of the other Unilocalers reviewing!!! I know it’s hard to find decent Chinese/​Taiwanese food but come on… Try at your own risk. Facing East and Monga are much much better. Service is good though from the Latin host/​waiter.

I came here to try out Tao’s with my wife. We looked at the menu online, and this seems like a promising place. When we arrived, we were the only patrons. We decided to order five different items on the menu — a vegetable dish, minced pork belly rice, beef noodle soup, braised combo, and stir fry thin rice noodle. They all came out good … but here’s the friggin’ kicker …
As we were eating, I spotted a real live cockroach, just crawling on the wall. Eeeek … call the Health Department.
Needless to say, we will not come back.

This food was bland and over priced. The hot and sour soup tasted like gelatin with little other flavors. We also had curry chicken and Kung pow chicken, which were okay but needed more seasoning. The order did not come with rice, which we did not know until getting our take-​out order home. We paid about $ 50 for almost inedible food.

Pretty decent eats out in Issablah. Nice take on the green onion pancake which I enjoyed much more than the black folk statuary that faced me while eating it (mini saxophonist on top of piano? What the hell?). My man ordered bun — interestingly it was ‘flat’ in shape. Sesame chicken and General Tso’s Tofu were tasty — General Tso fried well, a tad bit sweet. Everything went down well while we jammed to Phil Collins live in concert playing on the flat screen. Damn — we had no idea he could pull such a massive crowd and production!

Unilocal let me down! I visited this place based on the 4-​star average reviews, but was severely disappointed and wished I hadn’t wasted my money.
We ordered three dishes to share: a pork belly with rice dish, a pork intestine dish, and a bean curd with pork dish. All of them were disappointing, but the pork intestine dish was the worst. We only ate a few bites and stopped. It was almost all «soup» with this weird spicy/​sweet flavor combination that tasted like sweet and sour sauce. Imagine all your meat swimming in sweet and sour sauce. It had no depth of flavor. It came in a hot pot style dish, but the fire wasn’t even lit. What’s the point? The other two dishes were just bland, not visually appealing, and just not good. I make better at home, and I probably will next time.
I brought my Taiwanese mom here and I feel embarrassed after doing so. She only ate a few bites of each dish and I’m pretty sure she left hungry. It was that bad. To top it of, all the dishes came out at different times. This would have made for an awkward meal if we didn’t end up sharing all the dishes. One dish came out, then dishes for the two other tables in the restaurant came out, then another one of our dishes, then a dish for someone else, and finally our last dish. I’d estimate at least 15 minutes elapsed between our first and last dishes coming out. They need to time it better and bring them all out at the same time.
I won’t be back!

I was craving for some Taiwanese food, but was too lazy to drive to downtown Bellevue for Facing East, so luckily I found this restaurant near my house! I called in my order for take out. I ordered the pork bun and braised pork belly with egg. The pork bun was good and tasty-​I liked the peanuts on it. The pork belly was good, but it was mostly fat, no meat. I know it’s pork belly and it’s mostly fat, but I wish there was more meat. The lady that took my order over the phone and gave me the food when I came in for pick up was nice. I would come back to try the braised beef noodle soup, green onion pancake, and Taiwanese pork chop with rice.

Very unassuming exterior hides a really great restaurant. The food was great and very tasty. lots of old familiars but some new and interesting ones as well. I will definitely go again. Hidden Gem in Issaquah!

Surprisingly homie… Found a new favorite Taiwanese restaurant… Great for weekend brunch.

After all the AMAZING reviews, I thought I had found a Facing East equivalent. .. but alas, no mas! There’s TONS of Taiwanese restaurants popping up nowadays (TW REPRESENT!) but still nothing beats Facing East (and grandma’s cooking of course)!
We went there right when they opened so it was pretty deserted. The location is in a strip mall behind one of the structural posts so it was a little hard to see at first. The décor is clean and modern and the staff was friendly enough. I did note that the cooks in the kitchen spoke with a China accent so the cooks themselves aren’t true Taiwanese descent.
We tried the pork buns (OK, but not as flavorful as Facing East), the house special spicy noodle soup (CRAZY spicy even though they «toned» it down as much as they could but the flavor profile was good ~ they also said that Asian people didn’t usually order this item. Hmmm, what does that say about me??), and finally some classic Taiwanese Chicken Chop. The chicken was breaded and spiced ok; maybe a tad heavy on the 5-​spice. But the chicken was pounded so thinly that you mostly ate breading vs chicken.
The menu also encompasses a variety of flavors (not just Taiwanese) and there were a good number of takeout lunches so maybe their lunch specials (which aren’t Taiwanese food) are the better bet? Overall not very impressed — I’ll stick to Facing East when I get my Taiwanese cravings!

If I could, I would rate Tao as 3 ½ stars.
We stopped by at around 5 on Christmas Eve, and we were the only people in the restaurant. It is a little hard to find in the small strip mall (same one with Denny’s) since there really isn’t a sign outside. However, the interior was clean. The menu is pretty big, so after looking it over, we ordered:
House special chive pancakes: just ok (not as flaky as I would have liked).
Garlic chicken wings: these are pretty standard, but it was good. The jalapeños gave it a good kick.
Pork bun: not bad as well, although I like the ones at Facing East better.
Rice cakes with pork, dried shrimp and cabbage: this was my favorite dish (nice and chewy rice cakes).
Eggplant basil: this was also good, and went well with the rice cakes.
Overall, I plan on coming back to try some of the other dishes (beef noodle soup, pork chop, etc.). It would be nice to have a good Taiwanese place in Issaquah, instead of having to head to Seattle or Bellevue.

Authentic menu, basic décor, good food. I went with some people who I found didn’t eat beef or pork so we had a tough time picking items on the menu. Most of the stuff was pork or beef.
Green onion pancakes and green beans were tasty but nothing out of the world. I had a noodle dish that was above average. Will try some of their recommended dishes next time — the pork buns and braised pork over rice.

A little far from Seattle, but the food is worth it if you make a trip out to the Quah.
We stopped by for food after hiking and shopping in North Bend. I had my eyes set on the beef noodle soup (apparently their bestseller) and got a plate of the marinated boiled egg, kelp and tofu. That was tasty and reminded me of stuff I would get in Taiwan. The noodle soup was very tasty! The meat was perfectly tender and the broth had enough flavor. Not too herbal and not too overly five-​spicey. The mustard greens were delicious too.
My dining companion got the zha jiang mien and pork burgers. He really enjoyed both of them. The burgers are comparable to Facing East’s and I got a taste of the noodles and it was very tasty. They use the same noodles as the beef noodle soup, but it was chewy and flavorful nonetheless.
Service was attentive, but we were one of two parties in the restaurant around 2 p.m. on a Saturday.
They also have hot pot options too. What I also liked about their menu was that it was really authentic and similar to what you’d find at a lot of those stir fry places in Taipei like fried tomatoes and eggs, radish egg pancake, etc.

Fantastic authentic Taiwanese cuisine. Not too spicy by very flavorful. The green union pancake brought back great memories of my time spent in Taiwan. My Taiwanese husband also liked it very much… especially the beef noodle soup.
They recently opened and trying to build their clientele. We will definitely be coming back. The atmosphere is calming and the staff extremely friendly.

We went for brunch, and were pleasantly surprised to find out we could order from the lunch menu as well. The only dish I was not a huge fan of was the green onion pancake (it could have been cooked a bit longer, it was still a bit doughy). The rest were awesome!
Ordered the:
–Chinese donuts (great with the soup below)
–Braised beef noodle soup (super flavorful beef, big serving)
–Stir-​fry thin rice noodles (this comes with pork, even though we didn’t see that on the menu, so it’s not vegetarian for those of you out there; it was tasty with bits of dried shrimp in it)
–Pan-​fried dried radish omelette (this was one of my favorites; really tasty and lots of flavor – I wanted more!)
–Stir-​fry green bean (eat the garlic bits with it – soo tasty!)
My friend also ordered some of the soy milk/​tofu stuff, but I didn’t have any so I can’t comment on it. She liked them a lot, though.
We were so excited to find such a good Asian restaurant in the Issaquah area. It’s definitely authentic home-​cooking. The service was friendly and pretty fast with the food. Tea was constantly refreshed. I can’t wait to go back!

A Taiwanese «friend of a friend» had recently dined here and recommended it heartily, but my expectations of getting any authentic Taiwanese food in the Seattle Metro area is en par with my experiences in online dating (I’d rather be at home watching «American Idol» and sucking a lemon… maybe two lemons), so I had bargain basement low expectations walking into this place.
We ordered the beef noodle soup, a plate of intestines to start, and a panko breaded pork chop — stuff that might test one’s gag reflex, but all quite Taiwanese.
The intestines were impressive! They weren’t attached to a screaming pig and the intestines were very soft, hot, and with the perfect amount of seasoning. I’ve had the intestines when they were hard and rubbery and getting one down took 5 minutes of chewing, then another 2 of swallowing. These intestines were the freshest and best I’ve had in Seattle so far — even better than some of the places in Taipei.
The fried pork chops reminded me of the bento boxes many places in Taiwan sell for lunch. Fried well (not refried chops) with a nice saltiness and crispness to the batter. Some edge pieces of the pork were overfried/​inedible, but overall it was good. The chops came with a side of nice white rice and some pickled veggies.
The Beef Noodle — **star** of the show. Came in a bowl large enough to stick my face in. This is how I judge the massiveness of the portions: 1) If I can stick my face in; 2) Stick my face in AND blow bubbles; 3) Stick my face in and the cuticles of my fingers at the same time for a soak. This bowl of beef noodle was a #2 in size, for $ 8.95 — with many MANY pieces of beef, picked veggies and round soft noodles. The broth was unique — beef broth with soy, hint of spicy, and some kind of herb we couldn’t identify — perhaps Chinese herbs? The broth had obviously been steeped for a long time, due to the complex flavors. Looking around the restaurant, this was what most people were ordering too.
Sitting inside the nicely-​decorated place — we’re talking dangling chandeliers with tasteful wallpaper and dark wood chairs and tile floors, and not the god of lucky money pot altar with incense, Formica table tops, vinyl chairs, tile floors covered with decades worth of greasy grime, and fluorescent lights — you’ll feel transported back to your Taiwan homeland — even if you’re American-​born — where your Chinese relatives fall over each other preparing your meal, argue in Taiwanese amongst themselves about what dish you ordered. Our servers were very attentive and came around with the tea (steep fresh in a little tea pot the size of a fat baby’s head) many times during our meal.
The rest of their menu consists of Taiwanese favorites and dishes found in many restaurants in Taiwan — plate of braised meats, egg and tofu, Kung Pao /​General Tsao’s Chicken, Taiwanese style fried rice and noodles, and even the Taiwanese fish ball soup — something I rarely see on menus.
Being that they’re new, they have some kinks to work out. I heard that some things they offered were not on the menu. The pork chop dish came out looking a bit bland — a mound of rice, lots of chops and a few picked veggies. The menu had colored pictures of the dishes, but none of the pictures were professionally taken and look like big globs of… yuck.
However, a place to definitely try — truly a pleasant surprise… like, when you discover what might be pregnancy is just an unusual amount of bloat … and too much pig intestines.

Came here with one of my buddy for lunch.
Again, the food is great. Just that they are still in training mode and here is why.
— It was lunch time, we didn’t get the lunch menu until my buddy asked about General Tso Chicken.
–The lady didn’t know the dish I am ordering is on the Lunch Special Menu, which is come with the rice/​soup. But no biggie, I pointed out.
I had 香干肉絲 –Stir-​Fry Dried Bean Curd with Pork, it was yummy.
My buddy had General Tso Chicken. He is not Chinese so a lot of taiwan/​chinese authentic food on the menu is new to him. He said the Chicken was good.
Both of us think the Steam White Rice was very tasty as well.
I will keep coming back to try other dishes. I like this place, good food and friendly staff.